LAX-Palmdale Magnetic Rail Plan Stumbles With Caltrans : Transportation: The agency names the project as an alternate, behind two Orange County proposals. Katz calls the rejection a ‘pour-concrete mentality.’

The proposed magnetic levitation rail line from Los Angeles International Airport to Palmdale, which had excited dreams of a commuter service connecting the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys to the Los Angeles West Side by 1997, was left in limbo by Caltrans on Friday.

The state transportation agency named the project as an alternate, to be selected only if one of two Orange County projects fails. The agency instead chose highway proposals in Orange and San Diego counties and in Northern California to support under legislation authorizing free rights of way for a total of four private toll roads or railroads.

This left Los Angeles political leaders and transportation officials disappointed and unhappy that the state’s largest and most congested metropolitan area had been left without an endorsed project. They vowed to seek legislation that might authorize Caltrans to support additional projects later.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, said angrily: “Caltrans cannot get away from a pour-concrete-only mentality. They chose four road projects and left out the only rail project. On top of that, to ignore a project in the largest county in the state and a project that is projected to move more people than any of the other projects is insulting.”

But Caltrans Director Robert K. Best said at a Sacramento news conference that one reason the maglev line ranked lower than the projects chosen was that Caltrans had been told operating costs might have to be subsidized by the government. Therefore, he said, it was uncertain whether it truly would be a private project.

John E. Chiaverini, senior vice president of the Perini Corp., said, however, he still hopes Caltrans will eventually decide to support it. Perini leads the consortium, which includes the firm of Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall and the HSST Corp., that had proposed the 80 m.p.h. maglev line.

“We have been chosen the first alternate to the Orange County projects ahead of two other projects,” he said. “My wife said no to me the first time I proposed to her, and that didn’t discourage me . . . . Being named in some fashion is encouraging, and we’ve got to wait to find out what those ramifications mean.”

In a magnetic levitation system, trains are propelled by electromagnetic forces on a slight cushion of air. The lack of friction between the guideway and the train allows high speeds at comparatively low energy expense.

Chiaverini said the Perini consortium will not decide what to do next until it confers with the California Department of Transportation.

Consortium spokesmen have said the first 36-mile stage of the line, from the airport to Santa Clarita, would cost a little over $1 billion, with fares of about $10.

Even so, they acknowledged, a public operating subsidy might be required for the first 15 years. Later, county officials said they understood the subsidy could run $100 million a year.

Chiaverini said Friday that officials of the consortium had told Caltrans that it should still support the project because all construction costs would be private, and public funds subsidize most railway operations anyway.

Meanwhile, Linda Bohlinger, director of capital planning and programming for the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, said local officials still think “this is a viable project.”

“We need to find out now how we could go ahead,” she said. “It’s not been absolutely turned down.”

Bohlinger said that the projects chosen must work out franchise agreements with Caltrans by December, and there could be problems. Katz said he understood substantial public opposition exists in Orange County to one of the proposals approved there--extension of the Highway 57 freeway in a toll road down the bed of the Santa Ana River toward Newport Beach.

Even if one of the Orange County projects does not fall by the wayside, there is always the possibility of persuading the Legislature to act on behalf of the maglev line, Bohlinger said. “At least, we’d like them to make the right of way available,” she said.

Katz, however, expressed concern that Perini may soon decide to drop its proposal.

A spokeswoman for Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Vallee Bunting, said, “Despite today’s decision, we are hopeful that the merits of this new transportation system will encourage Caltrans to take another look at the LAX-Palmdale maglev project.

“Maglev trains are the mode of public transportation for the future and will alleviate the congestion presently plaguing Southern California highways,” she said.

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